VTU postpones semister exams over re-evaluation mess

Bengaluru, 02 June 2017: Buckling under pressure from students, the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) on Thursday announced postponement of ‘even’ semester exams. Students had been demanding this as the university is yet to announce the re-evaluation results of the ‘odd’ semester exams.

While the results of the ‘odd’ semester exams, held in December 2016, were declared in May 2017, the results of a large number of students who had applied for revaluation have not been announced. Meanwhile, many students have also complained that they have not been given the option to apply for revaluation.

In a press release, the Registrar (Evaluation) of the university said the final year BE exams, which were scheduled to start on June 5, had been rescheduled to June 12. Exams for first to six semesters would commence on June 23. All exams, including undergraduate and postgraduate, theory, project, viva, and practicals, would be completed by July 31. The detailed exam time-table would be announced on Saturday, the release said.

Earlier in the day, university Vice-Chancellor Karisidappa said the re-evaluation results of the seventh and eighth semesters would be announced on Friday, while the re-evaluation results of the remaining semesters would be announced by June 11. As many students have paid the examination fees for the next semester before their re-evaluation results are out, Mr. Karisidappa said they would refund the fee paid for backlogs if students pass. The refund of the re-evaluation fee would be done as per the university policy.

‘Development of software took longer than expected’

Explaining the reasons for the delay in announcing the results, Vice-Chancellor of the Visvesvaraya Technological University Karisiddappa said the development of the university’s software took longer than expected. “Once the software was ready, teachers were unable to come for evaluation duty as classes for the next semester had started,” he said on Thursday. Normally, the evaluation begins a week after the exams and the results are announced two weeks after the evaluation is completed.

Though the new examination system had led to confusion among students, the Vice-Chancellor said the system had helped the university to cut costs. “Each year, we would spend 14 crore on examination. This year, as we had our own infrastructure, we spent only 4.75 crore.”